Sunday, July 1, 2012

TwitterGate Current Status of certifcate authorization

Richard Clarke: China's Cyberassault on ...
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The end result? Here you go. "Dead"
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"Just because it cracks me up" shitty de ...
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And here's JDenjgma w CHINA & Pakistan
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In case anyone cares? Here's China.
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Another one of his "friends"
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Look how much fun "we" are having
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Get off my network!
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Psychopath NOT hero! So who is crazy now ...
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This is NOT one of "those" stories!
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Another stalker. Two. Gross.
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Hacker by association? #CIA #Black&Berg ...
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Jewish Internet Defense Force
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Bigger Problems: Pakistan
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"he'll grow on you" Like a wart!
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From #stalking to #hacking
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Too much traffic. #CyberStalking
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I won't get daddy lawyer! I'll get mommy ...
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Chat with Mike Firetown Sat, Mar 19, 201 ...
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#GangStalking needs help to stalk me? Da ...
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Chat with Mike Firetown Thu, Apr 14, 201 ...
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Harassing my friends!
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Chat with Mike Firetown Sat, Mar 19, 201 ...
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Officially #GangStalking Jdenigma needs ...
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Chat with Mike Firetown
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Chat with Mike Firetown
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Persistent little fucker! #CyberStalker
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"Crazy Bitch" or Crazy CyberStalker? You ...
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CyberStalker at large
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What Should I Do? || "Get me out of here ...
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Posted

BITCH!

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TwitterGate: Evidence reveals hoax staged by Teaparty Extremists and "Patriots" against progressive bloggers

Now for the record they can't claim I did any of this so since her server is "now" secured. How does she explain the repeated tweets from multiple platforms used to harass stalk and spread disinformation to stage a crime that never occurred'

What explanation for missing and deleted tweets? Not a very "secure" server?

This was there all clear sign. There is no doubt in my mind that @rockingjude is the core account responsible for the hoax. Let the people decide. TweetDeck add to any is the key. Dumbasses All three: GUILTY. Next?

Photo

Elyssa Durant, Ed.M. CyberSquatter at Large
The Corporation, LLC
United States of America

 

 

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Romney Strategy: Pander To Right-Wing Conspriacy Websites

Romney Strategy : Pander To Right-Wing Conspriacy Websites

by Judd Legum, thinkprogress.org
July 1st 2012 12:42 PM

In a stunning interview with Breitbart.com, two top advisers to Mitt Romney revealed the campaign’s plan to largely ignore journalists in favor of right-wing conspiracy websites.

From the beginning of the campaign, Romney has pointedly avoided news outlets who might pose tough questions. The press dubbed it “the Mittness Protection Program.” As the campaign wore on, Romney has refused to answer direct questions about major policy issues central to the campaign. For example, Romney has still not stated whether he would undo Obama’s order ending deportations for many young undocumented immigrants.

Romney campaign spokesman Lenny Alcivar recently outlined how the campaign will avoid journalists and cooridnate and communicate their message through Brietbart.com and the Drudge Report:

When this election is over, one of the lessons that will be learned by the mainstream media is that they no longer have a toe-hold on how Americans receive their news. Never before – in a way that has taken Democrats off stride – have we seen the confluence of an aggressive online community, led by Breitbart, and an aggressive campaign team not willing to cede an inch of ground to Democrats. This combination has created a new political reality. We no longer allow the mainstream media to define the political realities in America. The rise of Breitbart, Drudge and others, combined with an aggressive Romney campaign is a powerful tool in the arsenal of the conservative movement.

…The governor will no longer allow the mainstream media to dictate the terms of this debate. This is just the beginning… We are witnessing the rise of the center right media.

The Drudge Report and Breitbart.com, founded the late Andrew Breitbart, a Drudge protoge, are actually far-right websites that reguarly traffic in paranoid and offensive conspiracy theories. A few examples:

1. The Drudge Report aggressively pushes the birther conspiracy theory. Drudge promoted Jerome Corsi’s book alleging Obama was not born in the United States. After Obama released his long form birth certificate, Drudge pushed the theory that it was a forgery. He recently featured a discredited story (first published on Brietbart.com) suggesting Obama was born in Kenya. [ThinkProgress, 5/17/12; Drudge Report, 4/20/11; TPM, 4/29/11]

2. The Drudge Report pushed the theory that Chief Justice Robert upheld Obamacare because of “cognitive problems” due to epilepsy medication. [ThinkProgress, 6/29/12]

3. The Drudge Report reguarly links to and promotes 9/11 truther Alex Jones. Jones also promotes conspiracy theories regarding “global elites enacting one-world government; secret FEMA camps; weather control; mass sterilization; the Oklahoma City bombing; the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; vaccines; and the government using products like juice boxes to ‘encourage homosexuality with chemicals so that people don’t have children.’” [Red State, 6/20/11; Media Matters, 10/11/10]

4. Breitbart.com pushed the conspiracy theory that the Navy Seal operation last spring was a hoax and Bin Laden might be alive. [ThinkProgress, 5/2/11]

5. Breitbart.com frequently accused “President Obama of failing to release a valid birth certificate.” [Media Matters, 9/29/09]

6. Bretbart.com “routinely compares Obama to Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot, and Castro.” [Media Matters, 9/29/09]

It’s not just Romney’s advisors who are promoting sites like Drudge and Breitbart.com. In an interview with NewsMax, another far right site, Romney personally praised the Drudge Report.

Original Page: http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/01/509328/romney-advisors-reveal-strategy-ignore-journalists-pander-to-right-wing-conspriacy-websites/

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Radical Reactionary - Conservative America First Populism

RADICAL REACTIONARY

batr.org | Nov 13th 2005
in your own personal life is the moral social equivalent to witnessing one’s faith in Supreme Being authority. Exercising humility to divine providence, while practicing proactive civil disobedience, has become the formula to combat the malicious forces that seek the ultimate destruction of our most unique nation. This concept was first presented back in 2003. How many have been motivated to put into practice the revolutionary spirit of our forbearers? is a project that will boldly put forth the case for the OLD RIGHT heritage that founded America.

Original Page: http://batr.org/reactionary/

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The Mittness Protection Program: Romney Uses Obama Strategy: Refuse to Respond Politico.com

Mitt Romney's low-profile strategy

by BEN SMITH, politico.com
August 1st 2011 6:27 PM

Call it the Mittness Protection Program.

Through the hot summer of 2011, the front-runner for the Republican nomination has been in hiding.

See Video: http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/htmlFederated?bgcolor=%23FFFFFF&width=289&height=217&playerID=309045726001&publisherID=1155968404&%40videoPlayer=1090731330001&dynamicStreaming=true&videoSmoothing=true&isVid=true&isUI=true&

Romney was hit repeatedly by his opponents and the Democrats for refusing to offer an opinion on the debt deal until twelve hours after Congressional leaders accepted it – but that’s just been the most obvious example of a campaign that’s keeping the candidate far from the front lines and the headlines.

Romney has been missing from the fields of Iowa, swamps of South Carolina, beaches of Florida, and even the mountains near his summer home in New Hampshire – everywhere you’d expect a presidential candidate to go. Since his June 2 campaign launch, he’s done only about 24 public or semi-public events – an average of slightly more than one event every three days, or well below half the rate of Republicans Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman. That includes just one last week. He has none scheduled for this week.

Those numbers, if anything, slightly exaggerate the time his campaign has devoted to retail appearances in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Romney has been acting more as a full-time fundraiser and occasional candidate, and many of his stops — like the most recent two in Los Angeles and Ohio — are tacked on to his fundraising schedule.

This is hardly your traditional Rose Garden campaign, in which a strong incumbent or frontrunner molds politics to follow his non-political day job. Romney doesn’t currently hold office or any other job. But more importantly, he’s a Republican frontrunner of unprecedented weakness, and one whom the American people barely know. And while his advisers describe the decision as a strategic choice to pick only the big fights, it has obvious negative consequences: Romney’s identity remains hazy, voters remain unmet, and his rare appearances raise the stakes for gaffe free – or at least vaguely normal – performances.

“His strategy is clearly to play a lower profile so that he will draw less fire because he’s got a number of issues that he would rather not address,” said Mark Penn, who steered Hillary Clinton in similar waters in 2007. Clinton’s decision neither to fully engage nor withdraw from Iowa soured when her early, high poll numbers began sinking and Barack Obama’s relentless Iowa ground game began paying off.

“The tradeoff on that is if you’re not out there being the frontrunner, it makes it easier for other people to catch up and get some traction with the press and maybe you wind up not the frontrunner,” Penn said.

Indeed, Romney is allowing the year to wear on without establishing a clear public identity — the downside of a disciplined focus on engaging with President Obama, not his primary rivals, that keeps him largely out of the day-to-day media mix.

“When voters worry that a candidate may be all things to everyone, every day that candidate fails to cement his identity, he risks validating their concerns. Silence can be assent,” said Alex Castellanos, a 2008 Romney adviser who no longer supports the former Massachusetts governor. “More importantly, once the fight starts, Governor Romney will be forced to establish his identity in a more competitive climate. It’s a lot harder to keep your candle lit in a windstorm.”

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom disputed the premise of a question about Romney’s low profile, responding by emailing a list of 34 events since his federal PAC launched on April 11.

“We divide the candidate’s time between fundraising and public events,” Fehrnstrom said. “At this stage of the campaign, we feel we have struck the appropriate balance. We’re hitting our financial goals, and we’re continuing to show momentum on the political side as well.”

Romney’s absence has been particularly pronounced in the heat of the budget debate. His last event in either an early state or Washington, D.C. was on July 15.

Meanwhile, his forced regular-guy approach prompted a series of mocking stories, among them a column by the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank headlined, “A Day of Awkwardness with Mitt Romney.”

“His weirdness,” Milbank wrote, “comes through.”

Other outings have been marked by other gaffes, like his off-key remark about his employment status.

And the pressure on Romney to be more normal seems to increase at each of his rare outings — not exactly the formula for relaxed encounters.

His rivals and critics, meanwhile, are beginning to hone in on his calculated refusal to take risky political positions, driven by apparent concern for the general election and by a second-time candidate’s understanding of the rhythm of political cycles.

“There’s a difference between not chasing every ball, and not getting in the arena,” said a spokesman for one rival, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. “In the ongoing battle of ideas for the future of America, Mitt Romney is a spectator with a record of cheering for both sides.”

Daily Caller blogger Matt Lewis put Romney’s face on a milk carton Monday, and the White House-allied Priorities USA released a memo portraying his reticence as weakness – early shots in what will likely be a long campaign to define him.

“Mitt Romney won’t show any leadership on the debt ceiling because he is more concerned with avoiding the ire of the Tea Party than preventing the first ever default on America’s obligations,” wrote Priorities USA’s Bill Burton. “While Romney has always been a political opportunist, this week demonstrates that even when America’s economy is at stake he doesn’t have the courage to stand up to the Tea Party.”

Romney’s sparse schedule, those close to the campaign say, is no accident. Romney soldiered through the shifting ground of 2009 and 2010 in part by avoiding exposure and picking his spots. As possible challengers rose and fell, he barely moved in the public eye or in the polls, where he has steadily drawn a plurality — never a majority — of Republican support.

Led by campaign manager Matt Rhoades, the Romney campaign is aiming to avoid what they see as the mistakes of 2008, when, as they say, he chased every ball, leaving the impression that he was an opportunist without clearly defining his core strength as a former executive and economic conservative. This time, he’s focusing almost solely on economic issues, and rebuffing efforts to drag him into social policy weeds, something that served him well when other candidates found themselves tangled in the over-reaching language of an Iowa group’s pledge.

They’re also seeking to avoid a drawn-out, bloody primary fight, and to compress the battle into a ferocious fall campaign.

“This is the political equivalent of playing six defensive backs in order to protect against a long pass. You sacrifice some ground in order to avoid a big mistake,” said Dan Schnur, a veteran California Republican who directs Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. Schnur predicted that Texas Governor Rick Perry, if he enters the race, would force Romney to engage.

In the meantime, Castellanos said the wisdom of Romney’s strategy remains a question.

“If the campaign can amass superior resources, avoids being decimated by the front-runner destroying news media for a few months, and really believes there is no one out there who can fill the vacuum before Governor Romney does, then Colonel Prescott’s ‘hold your fire till you see the whites of their eyes’ strategy makes sense,” he said.

But to frustrated Republicans, Romney is also missing an opportunity to lead.

“Romney isn’t exactly sitting where George W. Bush was 10 years ago – he’s not nearly as strong a frontrunner as Bush was,” said Keith Appell, a conservative Republican strategist. “You’re running for president and there’s a golden opportunity for a challenger, given the economy, given the many failed initiatives of the Obama administration. It’s somewhat confusing as to why he’s playing it so close to the vest.”

Emily Schultheis contributed to this report.

Original Page: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60444.html

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Game On! "End the Fed" #p2 #tcot #Israel HBGary Round #ONE

Political Extremists "Wanna playyyy?" TwitterGate

Victims of CyberBull: Defending Victims of Online Harassment

P432
P434
P436

Sounds more like CyberBullshit and bullshit walks.

So apparently the roles switch quickly around here. I worry about my friends who I can see are being followed but it is kinda scary to think someone might be that obsessed to stalk me near and far.

Kinda sad actually because I'm pretty sure this is a battle I can't lose.

Jude's acquaintances are coming at me from all directions and I find it interesting that they would call me names without EVER corresponding with me previously or know anything about me.

Anyhoo, battery almost dead and I have to walk home now. Hope this post goes through because in my world, my tweetstream is all o have to protect me.

Yes, I have problems. But how dare someone come into my world and tear it apart piece by peace. I didn't ask her to help. I did not ask her to spend ridiculous money to set me up as her next target.

Because I already see that she has plenty of others. And for the sake of preserving Internet freedom, online safety and in the interest of "people like me" I will take the risk because it is time to lay down the law.

Because I see everyone rushing to help #assange yet where is the outrage and support for #manning?

Who is the real victim? Who is the real hero? Who is going to speak for mE?

Ref: "then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak up!"

If not me, who? If not now, when?

edd, edm

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TwitterGate Conversation 12/1722010

Elyssa Durant, Ed.M. 

CyberSquatter at Large
The Corporation, LLC
United States of America


Begin forwarded message:

From: PowersThatBeat <powersthatbeat@gmail.com>
Date: December 23, 2010 11:21:19 AM PST
Subject: Fwd: Conversation !

Subject: Conversation 

rockingjude (@rockingjude)
12/17/10 4:50 PM
@ElyssaD that problem?...ad nothing to do with skype...but since mike blocked my call...can't even go past jail (...go figure...f it....
Elyssa Durant (@ElyssaD)
12/17/10 4:05 PM
@rockingjude regarding that hacking thing... I did not do it. What now? How do we fix it?

Elyssa Durant, Ed.M. 

CyberSquatter at Large
The Corporation, LLC
United States of America

Gone

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Most burglars using Facebook and Twitter to target victims, survey suggests

Most burglars using Facebook and Twitter to target victims, survey suggests

by Andy Bloxham, theunhivedmind.com
September 26th 2011

The majority of burglars use social media such as the websites Facebook and Twitter to target their victims, a survey suggests.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8789538/Most-burglars-using-Facebook-and-Twitter-to-target-victims-survey-suggests.html

With many users posting constant updates, the sites can unwittingly provide the thieves with information about recent high-value purchases such as televisions as well as the dates and times when they are out.

Other websites, such as Google Street View, show photographs of individual houses from which the would-be burglars can gauge security and ease of access by looking for alarms and side entrances.

The results were based on the answers of offenders who were convicted of burglary this year.

Four out of five of the criminals said social media websites were being used by burglars.

However, the same number said a simple home alarm would have deterred them from targeting the property in the first place.

According to the survey, a thief steals an average of £487 from a home on a single visit.

One of the convicted burglars interviewed, Richard Taylor, said: “We’re living in the age of the digital criminal and people are taking advantage of social media to access information about would-be victims.

“We’ll tell them even when we’re going away on holidays. We will let them know that we’re not in. We’re inviting them round to our house.”

Jonathan Lim, an expert at Friedland, the security firm behind the research, said: “Taking simple measures, including cutting back trees and shrubs to remove potential hiding places and installing simple alarm systems are all good, cost-effective deterrents that all homeowners can implement to remove their home from the target list.”

Original Page: http://theunhivedmind.com/wordpress/?p=2528

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Poor prosecutors ‘let victims down’

Poor prosecutors ‘let victims down’

by THEUNHIVEDMIND, theunhivedmind.com
September 12th 2011 6:00 AM

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/poor_prosecutors_let_victims_down_1_3762538

Crime victims and witnesses in Yorkshire are being let down because lawyers are making poor decisions and handling cases badly, an inspectors’ report on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reveals today.

Prosecutors in the region have failed to meet crucial standards, resulting in cases collapsing or being delayed needlessly when they come to court.

Inspectors have called for a culture change at CPS Yorkshire and Humberside after finding staff made mistakes because they were too focused on pushing prosecutions through the system quickly.

The findings are listed in a report published by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.

In February and March this year, the inspectorate assessed the overall governance of the region’s service, its complex casework unit, and the decisions and efficiency shown in the handling of cases in West and South Yorkshire.

The most serious and complicated matters were generally handled well with good results, but inspectors found that casework in other areas was poor.

Barely more than a quarter of the cases inspected were progressing well and, of the court hearings in West Yorkshire which collapsed or were adjourned, more than 60 per cent could have been avoided.

Almost all advocates were as good as expected or better, but there was “significant room for improvement” in the way unused material in cases was handled in West Yorkshire.

Moving prosecutions through the system as quickly as possible meant weak cases were neither made stronger nor discontinued until a late stage, wasting time and resources and leading to poor success rates.

“The group needs to change the culture to focus on quality and getting it right first time,” the report states.

Although some “pockets of good work” were discovered, inspectors found victims and witnesses were “not being given consistently the level of service they deserve”.

Budget controls were sound in the main, but a review of 10 crown court cases in South Yorkshire revealed a significant amount of fees were unnecessarily.

HM Chief Inspector Michael Fuller said: “The area has rightly identified the need to improve the quality of decision-making across many aspects of its casework in West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.

“Good performance management at the area level needs to be replicated at the individual level to ensure high quality and timely decision-making at all stages.

“I am pleased to find strong governance at the senior management level which is reflected in sound financial controls and effective communications.”

Yorkshire’s Chief Crown Prosecutor, Martin Goldman, accepted the report was an honest and accurate assessment of the service’s performance in February and March, but he insisted “much has changed since then”.

“Whilst I recognise the need to improve,” he said, “it’s also important to recognise that many of our outcomes are higher than the national average.

“We’ve now introduced a number of measures to improve quality and efficiency. We’re challenging quality at every opportunity.We have introduced rigorous checks and feedback to all staff to ensure we learn lessons and improve wherever possible.”

Mr Goldman added that money had been saved by bringing together services from across the region to work as a single entity.

“We’ve centralised some key functions including our storage facility, finance and performance and we’ve merged the two complex casework units,” he said.

“We’re also working closely with the police and the courts to identify and remove any inefficiency from our joint systems.”

Original Page: http://theunhivedmind.com/wordpress/?p=1273

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Introducing Siri: DARPA’s Ghost in Apple’s Machine

Introducing Siri: DARPA’s Ghost in Apple’s Machine

by THEUNHIVEDMIND, theunhivedmind.com
October 5th 2011

http://cryptogon.com/?p=25289

So their eyes are growing hazy
cos they want to turn it on
so their minds are soft and lazy, well…
give em what they want

—10,000 Maniacs – Candy Everybody Wants

One of the stocks that I used to kick around in the 1990s was that of a now long dead company called General Magic. Back then, I looked into the company and learned that it was, in essence, divested from Apple in 1990. It was made up of former Apple employees and Apple held 10% of the company.

Apple has been thinking about the post PC era (that we’re actually entering now, according to them) since the 1980s. Here’s Apple’s Knowledge Navigator concept from 1987:

See Video:

This wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, so they spun it off into General Magic.

If you’ve seen Apple’s Siri in action, that’s the type of thing that General Magic wanted to do back in the 1990s. With the old Portico system, users called into the service, rather than the service running on the phone, as is the case with Siri. Here’s an almost unwatchable promo for General Magic’s Portico product (circa 1997):

See Video:

If you’re interested in Siri, definitely read Wired’s, Bill and Andy’s Excellent Adventure II from 1994. The point is that Apple and Apple alumni have been beating around this bush for a very long time.

Flash forward to what Apple unveiled yesterday:

See Video:

Now, what’s in a name?

Look closely at the name: Siri. What letters stand out?

See it yet?

S i R I.

SRI = Stanford Research Institute.

It turns out that Apple’s Siri used to be SRI’s Siri, and SRI’s Siri is… Are you ready? A spinoff of DARPA’s PAL (Perceptive Assistant that Learns) program, which SRI called CALO (Cognitive Agent that Learns and Organizes).

See Video:

This is SRI’s CALO information page:

SRI International is leading the development of new software that could revolutionize how computers support decision-makers.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), under its Perceptive Assistant that Learns (PAL) program, has awarded SRI the first two phases of a five-year contract to develop an enduring personalized cognitive assistant. DARPA expects the PAL program to generate innovative ideas that result in new science, new and fundamental approaches to current problems, and new algorithms and tools, and to yield new technology of significant value to the military.

SRI has dubbed its new project CALO, for Cognitive Agent that Learns and Organizes. The name was inspired by the Latin word “calonis”, which means “soldier’s servant”. The goal of the project is to create cognitive software systems, that is, systems that can reason, learn from experience, be told what to do, explain what they are doing, reflect on their experience, and respond robustly to surprise.

The software, which will learn by interacting with and being advised by its users, will handle a broad range of interrelated decision-making tasks that have in the past been resistant to automation. It will have the capability to engage in and lead routine tasks, and to assist when the unexpected happens. To focus the research on real problems and to ensure the software meets requirements such as privacy, security, and trust, the CALO project researchers will themselves use the technology during its development.

SRI is leading the multidisciplinary CALO project team, and, beyond participating in the research program, is also responsible for overall project direction and management and the development of prototypes.

Here’s more from Venture Beat, Shadowy Government Project Spins Off Siri to Help Direct Your Affairs:

Conspiracy theorists will love this one: A computerized assistant that can help you manage your day to day life, built atop an artificial intelligence platform developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the United States’ internal military research group. Siri, the startup building the assistant, is today announcing $8.5 million in venture funding.

As befits its spookish origins, Siri isn’t saying a great deal yet about what it will do. Co-founder Dag Kittlaus, who licensed technology from DARPA’s CALO (Cognitive Agent that Learns and Organizes) project, calls it “a smarter, more personal interaction paradigm for the Internet.” Unfortunately, that’s about as specific as calling Google “a thing that finds stuff.” Those who want a sneak peek at Siri will instead have to look to CALO.

So here’s what we know about CALO: It’s a concerted effort to take the first real step toward artificial intelligence, with five years of work and $200 million in funding to date. Rather than being immediately useful, it learns about the user over time, much like a real personal assistant would. As it learns, it becomes capable of making logical associations and initiating its own actions.

Siri, Apple’s Implementation of DARPA Sponsored Artificial Intelligence Technology

People are going to pay a lot of money to have their asses tracked to within a couple of meters by a device running a civilian version of DARPA’s soldier’s servant software.

The most disturbing aspect of this is not what the iPhone 4s is going to be phoning home to Apple (which is unknown), or the invasion of The Complex into most aspects of our lives, but the fact that, in general, people would think that you were nuts for having these reservations at all. I mean, what could possibly be wrong with re-purposed DoD AI software running on a mass market consumer device that persistently reveals the user’s location to the state?

Ah well, give em what they want.

Original Page: http://theunhivedmind.com/wordpress/?p=4550

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» False Flags and Conspiracy Theories Soaring Above London Olympic Stadium

m.guardian.co.uk | Nov 13th 2011 

The US has raised repeated concerns about security at the London Olympics and is preparing to send up to 1,000 of its agents, including 500 from the FBI, to provide protection for America's contestants and diplomats, the Guardian has learned. American officials have expressed deep unease that the UK has had to restrict the scope of anti-terrorism "stop and search" powers, and have sought a breakdown of the number of British police and other security personnel that will be available next summer. The prime minister and other senior members of the cabinet, including home secretary Theresa May and culture and sport secretary Jeremy Hunt, are taking turns to chair security meetings about the Olympics, which are often dominated by the latest questions from the US, sources said. But Washington's need for reassurance is exasperating British officials and anti-terrorism officials, who have privately raised concerns about the meddling, as well as the size of the US "footprint" in the UK during the games next year. "We are not equal partners in this," said one security official. "They are being very demanding." The friction is adding to the pressures on the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog), which is responsible for preparing and staging the event. The Guardian has learned the committee is attempting to resolve a potential crisis over venue security, after conceding it had underestimated the number of security guards needed at the 32 sites across the country. Originally it had thought 10,000 guards would be enough, but after a review over the summer it now believes it will need up to 21,000. Venue safety is not the responsibility of the police, so the firm G4S was awarded the contract to find and train the initial group. The company will this week begin an advertising campaign to meet that target. But the organising committee does not have the money to pay G4S to make up the shortfall, and does not believe the firm has enough time to do so, forcing ministers to turn to the Ministry of Defence for help. The MoD has offered 3,000 soldiers, and another 2,000 in reserve – half the total required. The ministry is working within its own tight budget, and the late request for help has irritated some officials. "What have they been doing for the last five years?" asked one. "There is less than a year to go and they've only just realised they need twice the number of security guards they first thought. Where is the money to pay for this coming from? It is an extra burden on the defence budget that we could well do without." Another source said: "Everyone has now realised 10,000 was an underestimate. This is one of the biggest problems facing the Olympic authorities because there is an absolute dearth of vetted and qualified private security guards. Senior police had advised ministers and the committee that 10,000 was too few, but nobody wanted to listen because of the cost involved. "The military will have to stand up some people. Otherwise G4S have got the Olympic committee over a barrel." The problem will do little to reassure Washington, which will be supplementing its FBI personnel with an equal number of diplomatic security officials, some of whom will be armed. Though the UK's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has lowered the threat of attack to "substantial" – the third level on the scale – western intelligence agencies remain wary. They know it is possible that al-Qaida, or one of its affiliates, may attempt to disrupt the Olympics, with members of the US team being obvious targets. The Home Office and Scotland Yard believe the UK has a robust security strategy, but this has not stopped American officials voicing their concerns. The police response to the London riots, the arrest of a security guard at the London Olympics site earlier this year, and the arrests made shortly before the visit of the Pope last year have provoked anxiety among US officials. The repeal of section 44 of the Terrorism Act, which allowed police to stop and search suspects with near impunity, also raised alarm. One well-placed Whitehall source said the entire Olympic security operation was being prepared "with the US in mind", adding: "The US will have no qualms in saying it is unsafe. If something happens and we say we did not have enough people, we are finished." Another official said: "The Americans are risk-averse, with a capital A and underlined. They want to see everything. We are not equal partners in this. They want to be on top of everything – building protection, counter-terrorism strategy and VIP security – everything." Asked about the size of the US contingent heading to London next year, the official said: "They don't do things by halves." In addition to the official American security entourage, the sponsors of the Games, including Coca-Cola, will have their own private security details, adding to the complexity of the policing operation. The Ministry of Defence and the Home Office said no final decisions had been taken on the number of soldiers that might be needed to beef up security at some of the Olympic sites.An official said the need for an increase at the venues had become apparent when the Olympic committee began to role-play scenarios at some of the completed sites over the summer. "The focus of the government and everyone involved is to deliver a safe and secure Olympic and Paralympic Games that London, the UK and the world can enjoy," a government spokesman said. "Ministers and officials from across government are working closely with the police and Locog to ensure we have a robust safety and security strategy." Officials said ministers, the Olympic committee and G4S were working together "to finalise the requirements for Olympic venue security". "As with all significant national events, we will make the best and most appropriate use of available resources," a statement said. "The Ministry of Defence have been fully involved in supporting Olympic security planning work." G4S said it was confident of recruiting 10,000 security guards, and could recruit more, as long as the Olympic authorities gave the company enough time. "We need to know as soon as possible," said a spokesman. The US state department declined to comment. Locog said detailed security plans were being drawn up in collaboration with the government and security agencies.

Original Page: http://m.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/13/us-worried-london-olympics-security-2012?cat=sport&type=article

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Al Qaeda magazine encourages forest fire arson in the US

Al Qaeda magazine encourages forest fire arson in the US

A magazine published by members of al Qaeda has called for Western Muslims to wage war within the United States, urging them to engage in lone wolf attacks, including setting forest fires. According to ABC News, a recent issue of Inspire magazine has surfaced on jihadi forums with one article titled ”It Is of Your Freedom to Ignite a Firebomb”, which gives detailed instructions on how to build an “ember bomb” in a forest in the United States, and suggested Montana as a choice location due to the rapid population growth in forested areas.

In America, there are more houses built in the [countryside] than in the cities. It is difficult to choose a better place [than] in the valleys of Montana.

A previous issue of the magazine contained information on how to construct remote-controlled explosives, and helpfully listed the needed parts along with instructions and photos.

ABC News has been calling around today to find a wildfire expert who can be interviewed on camera for a piece they expect to be on Wednesday’s Good Morning America. One person they called was Dick Mangan, a past President of the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF), but ABC was not able to work out the logistics of quickly getting a camera crew to his house in Montana. The last we heard they found someone in the Sacramento area who works for CAL FIRE.

It’s odd, or maybe that is why ABC contacted Dick, because he wrote an article for the March/April 2005 issue of Wildfire, a magazine published by the IAWF, titled Terrorists in the Woods, about the potential for terrorists to set vegetation fires in wildland areas. In the article he mentioned that police and structural fire departments receive funding for the possibility of terror-related incidents, but the land management agencies receive little or nothing to plan for or prevent threats such as these.

Below is an excerpt from Dick’s 2005 article.

…The massive increases in the federal budget for protection from terrorism mostly have been sent to police and structural fire departments. But what about the threat of terrorist-caused wildland fires in our forests, community watersheds and wildland-urban interface? Who’s worried about that threat, what are they doing about it, and how much is being spent to fund the efforts to prevent it?

The history of fire as a tool of warfare is well-documented: Native Americans used fire against their enemies, both other tribes and the expanding Europeans; the Aboriginal people of Australia used fire to discourage the incursion of the British settlers onto their island. In World War II, the ]apanese launched “fire balloons” against the western United States. While largely unsuccessful, they started a few fires and killed six people in Oregon. The Palestinians in ihe latter half of the 20th century used fire to try to destroy Israel’s carefully planted pine plantations.

Now, as more and more folks are moving into the wildland-urban interface, the danger of fire as a weapon is even greater. Even under the best of circumstances – when a single ignition occurs under critical fire conditions – hundreds and thousands of citizens are threatened with entrapment, injury or death from rapidly spreading fires. Imagine if a small band of determined terrorists, with only some basic fire weather knowledge and fire behavior training decided to set multiple ignitions in some of our most vulnerable areas like heavily populated valley bottoms with limited egress/acceass and a heavy, dry fuel loading at the peak of the burning period?

There are many such areas around the world: in the foothills of Andalusia in Spain; outside of Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, and in numerous areas of the United States from Florida to the Pine Barrens of New York to the foothills surrounding Los Angeles. Even my own hometown of Missoula, Montana has areas that fit all the above criteria, and is surely at risk under the wrong combination of weather conditions and a committed terrorist with fire on the brain.

We contacted a spokesperson for the IAWF, Paula Nelson, about the reported threat of terrorist-arson, and she responded:

Wildfire threats and terrorist threats cross borders and require us all to be prepared and vigilant. Training and communicating with fellow firefighters, regardless of agency or country, is always worthwhile in improving our capabilities in both arenas. This is a cornerstone for the work IAWF does.

FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE! These fires are scaring the shit out of people, and as everyone is busy evacuating, my little brother is going in to fight the fires. When he told me, I wanted to say, "don't be a hero" but I understand "the calling" and he is doing exactly what I would have done... I hope he doesn't get burned like I did.

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Internet firms co-opted for surveillance: experts

Internet firms co-opted for surveillance: experts

by Georgina Prodh, theunhivedmind.com
September 30th 2011 10:12 AM

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/30/us-internet-security-idUSTRE78T2GY20110930

(Reuters) – Internet companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook are increasingly co-opted for surveillance work as the information they gather proves irresistible to law enforcement agencies, Web experts said this week.

Although such companies try to keep their users’ information private, their business models depend on exploiting it to sell targeted advertising, and when governments demand they hand it over, they have little choice but to comply.

Suggestions that BlackBerry maker RIM might give user data to British police after its messenger service was used to coordinate riots this summer caused outrage — as has the spying on social media users by more oppressive governments.

But the vast amount of personal information that companies like Google collect to run their businesses has become simply too valuable for police and governments to ignore, delegates to the Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi said.

“When the possibility exists for information to be obtained that wasn’t possible before, it’s entirely understandable that law enforcement is interested,” Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf told Reuters in an interview.

“Then the issue would be, what’s the right policy? And that, or course, engenders a lot of debate,” said Cerf, who is recognized as one of the “fathers of the Internet” for his early work in areas including communications protocols and email.

Demands from governments for Internet companies to hand over user information have become routine, according to online privacy researcher and activist Christopher Soghoian, who makes extensive use of freedom-of-information requests in his work.

“Every decent-sized U.S. telecoms and Internet company has a team that does nothing but respond to requests for information,” Soghoian told Reuters in an interview.

Soghoian estimates that U.S. Internet and telecoms companies may receive about 300,000 such requests in connection with law enforcement each year — but public information is scarce.

While U.S. courts are obliged to publish reports on wire-tapping of telephone lines, no similar information is required to be made public with respect to the Internet — which grew up after the laws on electronic communications were passed.

Google does voluntarily publish a transparency report every six months in which it details the number of requests it receives from governments around the world to remove content from its services or hand over user data.

But the numbers do not reveal how many users are affected by each request — only trends country by country (www.google.com/transparencyreport).

Some governments are requiring Internet companies to collect more data and keep it for longer, said Katarzyna Szymielewicz, executive director of Poland’s Panoptykon Foundation, which campaigns for human rights in light of modern surveillance.

“Government agencies throughout the world are pushing companies to collect even more data than is needed for their business purposes,” she told the conference.

“For example, we have a very controversial data retention regime which is currently under review. This requires people to store data for a period up to two years so it can easily be accessed by law enforcement agencies.”

The ease and cost of surveillance are at an all-time low, Soghoian said, with Google charging an administrative fee of $25 to hand over data, Yahoo charging $20, and Microsoft and Facebook providing data for free.

“Now, one police officer from the comfort of their desk can track 20, 30, 50 people all through Web interfaces provided by mobile companies and cloud computing companies,” he said.

“The marginal cost of surveilling one more person is now essentially approaching zero.”

Original Page: http://theunhivedmind.com/wordpress/?p=3831

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The Database: Why Criminal Governments Spy On Citizens

The Database: Why Criminal Governments Spy On Citizens

by THEUNHIVEDMIND, theunhivedmind.com
November 30th -0001

http://www.alt-market.com/articles/293-the-database-why-criminal-governments-spy-on-citizen

At the very foundation of perhaps every modern day conflict between the expansive powers of unchecked bureaucracy and the dwindling freedoms of the ordinary citizen dwells the vital issue of privacy. Privacy and the right to hold personal and political views without being singled out and scrutinized by government is absolutely essential to any society which dares to deem itself “fair and just”. Ultimately, without the presence of these two liberties, and without people to defend them, a nation is ill equipped to circumvent the growth of tyranny, and anyone claiming to be “free” in the midst of such a culture is living a delusion of the highest order.

Often, social engineers attempt to direct debate over the issue of privacy towards rationalizations of relative morality, or artificially delineated priorities. We quibble over the level of government intrusion that should be tolerated for the sake of the “greater good”. We struggle with questions of bureaucratic reach, wondering at which point we should consider government a threat to the safety and liberty of the people, rather than a servant and protector. The dialogue always turns towards “how much” room government should be given to lumber about our personal lives. Rarely do we actually confront the idea that, perhaps, government should not be welcomed at all into such places.

Really, what makes a governmental entity so special that it should be allowed free access to the activities of the average citizen? Why should ANY intrusion of privacy be tolerated, let alone the kind that goes on today? Our most important concern is not how much leeway our government should be given to snoop into our pocket books, our medical records, our education, our political leanings, or our child rearing philosophies, but rather, whether or not they fulfill any purpose whatsoever through these actions. Is the government, as it exists now, even necessary, or does it cause only harm?

Under tyranny, privacy is usually the first right to be trampled in the name of public safety. Its destruction is incremental and its loss a victim of attrition in the wake of more immediate crisis. Disturbingly, many people become so fixated upon the threats of the moment that they lose complete track of the long term derailment of their own free will in progress. Government, no matter how corrupt, is seen as an inevitability. Conditioned by fear, desperation, insecurity, and sometimes greed, we begin to forget what it was like to live without prying eyes constantly over our shoulders. In the past decade alone, Americans have witnessed a substantial invasion of our individual privacy as well as a destabilization of the legal protections once designed to maintain it. Not just America, but most of the modern world has undergone a quiet program of surveillance and citizen cataloging that goes far beyond any sincere desire for “safety” and into the realm of technocratic domination.

Spying on U.S. citizens by a host of alphabet agencies has been going on for decades, but the actual cataloging of the public by government became most direct during WWII, which saw the use of the Census Bureau as a tool for collecting the names and residencies of Japanese Americans, as well as the highly illegal and unconstitutional internment of these innocents and their families:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=confirmed-the-us-census-b

The creation of lists designed to brand dissenters, activists, and even average passive persons has only become more prevalent since. From the McCarthy witch hunts (based on some real threats but skewed by McCarthy’s ignorance of the bigger picture), to the Cointelpro antics of the Vietnam era, government spying and cataloging has been a way of life and an expected prerequisite part of the relationship between citizenry and leadership. Though consistently opposed, surveillance has become ingrained into our social framework.

In 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Information Act (FISA) was signed by Jimmy Carter into law. The claimed purpose of this act was to confront the extensive abuses of power initiated by the Nixon administration, and to ensure that intelligence agencies were never used again as tools for suppressing political opposition or activist groups. Instead, the act merely became a cover for even more surveillance of American citizens. FISA’s use was expanded far beyond the realm of “foreign intelligence” by both the Bush and Obama Administrations to include vast warrantless wire tapping programs and internet monitoring against U.S. citizens in tandem with telecom companies who are now immune from civil litigation should their intrusions ever be discovered. In 2010, orders for FISA surveillance were up 19%, and not a single request was turned down. This included over 24,287 national security information requests by the FBI pertaining to over 14,000 U.S. persons:

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/2010rept.pdf

In 2002, the Bush Administration established the Information Awareness Office (IAO) under the supervision of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Using what they call “Total Information Awareness”, and stemming from the usurping authority of the Patriot Act, this project’s purpose is to monitor vast swaths of domestic communication, as well as collect a massive database of the personal information of every U.S. citizen, including phone calls, emails, social networking records, medical records, and financial records without search warrant authorization:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/feb/18/september11.usa

In the UK, a national database including biometrics has been ordered for completion by 2017, including the issuance of a microchipped ID card:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1580895/All-UK-citizens-in-ID-database-by-2017.html

A similar action has been taken by the government of India for citizens “below the poverty line”, supposedly, to make welfare programs easier to administer. Of course, nearly half of India’s population is under the international poverty line:

http://www.mit.gov.in/content/national-citizen-database

In 2009, the Russian government gave itself sweeping powers to spy on citizens, including unlimited access to all private mail without a warrant:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/5878430/Kremlin-gives-itself-powers-to-spy-on-all-Russian-mail.html

Last month, the Obama Administration launched a website called ‘Attack Watch’. Its purpose? To monitor and catalog all internet based opponents of the Obama presidency. Obama supporters can “report” attacks on the White House using the website by sending an email or twitter:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/obama-attack-watch-website-to-help-supporters-fight-back/

And most recently, the Federal Reserve itself launched a new strategy called the “Social Listening Platform”, which is designed to compile and monitor lists of Fed opponents and critics in a vast database, while at the same time watching billions of web conversations and blogs for negative influence against the central bank:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44701381/The_Fed_Wants_to_Be_Your_Facebook_Friend

Obviously, the current levels of surveillance against citizens has gone way beyond the old excuse of “defense against terrorism”, and jaunted into the realm of Orwellian thought police. The Fed, for instance, has always claimed that its privately controlled banking structure is valuable to the U.S. government and the economy because it allows them a level of political independence that is useful in applying “objective” solutions to economic problems. Yet, they now insist on tracking the political views and opinions of their opponents in the general populace! This hardly sounds “objective” to me…

If the Fed wants to know what we think of them, they certainly don’t need to covertly monitor our communications or writings. All they have to do is ask us! Of course, this kind of tactic has less to do with knowing our opinions, and more to do with silencing our opinions.

To understand the concept of the subversion of dissent through surveillance, we must examine two factors. First, is the reality of the spying itself, which we just outlined clearly above. Second, are the common arguments and talking points used by the champions of Big Brother culture, and how nonsensical they can be. Let’s take a look some of these arguments now…

1) If You Have Nothing To Hide, Then You Have Nothing To Fear From Government Surveillance

At bottom, whether we have “something to hide” or not is none of the government’s concern unless they can provide probable cause. This issue is directly dealt with in the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. It is NOT subject to wild interpretations or matters of stipulation. No national emergencies, wars, terrorist enemies, nor little green men from outer space take precedence over the rights of the individual to be secure from constant and unwarranted scrutiny. In a free country, all men are innocent until proven guilty, but in a surveillance slave culture, everyone is treated as a potential criminal.

2) Surveillance Makes Our Country Safer

Regardless of the society at risk, or the government involved, history has shown that the act of government spying is rarely if ever about citizen safety. Rather, it is invariably about protecting the establishment power structure itself, especially when that structure has committed heinous transgressions and criminal behavior that inspire the citizenry to overthrow it. The more offensive and corrupt the government, the more surveillance that government thrusts upon the public. Guaranteed. The safety provided by the state is, in general, an illusion, and the prevention of danger is hardly successful enough to warrant the faith that the populace places in the establishment. Citizens ultimately provide their own safety, or none at all. Governments cannot save you from danger, they can only give you a superficial sense of comfort. A social placebo to ease the constant paranoia they simultaneously strive to perpetuate.

3) The Authorities Already Know Everything About Us Anyway, So A Little More Surveillance Won’t Matter

The magic of faulty logic is apparent in its circular nature. One lie feeds into another until a complete, but erroneous, idea is born. Again, the question needs to be raised; what makes the inhabitants of government so trustworthy or upright that they deserve to expect full knowledge of our personal lives? What they know or do not know already is utterly irrelevant to this question. Being privy to public information databases does not qualify an individual to walk into your home, track your phone calls and emails, or place you on a list of undesirables. So, why should it be any different for a government?

4) Our Government Is Elected By The People, So If You Don’t Like Surveillance, Vote Them Out

The ignorance of this response is hopefully apparent to most readers. In an election dynamic controlled by a two party system in which both parties represent the top 1% or less of global elitists, and not the people, voting on the national level is hardly meaningful or effective. There is only one Ron Paul, and few others in government with similar convictions or principles. Therefore, regardless of how we vote, the system is designed to continue forward in the construction of a surveillance society. Our government today is NOT elected by the people. Not as long as the false left/right paradigm remains.

5) All Individuals Should Make Sacrifices For The Greater Good

The “greater good” is a matter of perspective. My definition is certainly much different from that of an elitist or a collectivist. Ideally, any widely applied view of this elusive greater good should be built upon the foundation of inherent conscience, and be driven by true sincerity and empathy for the future of humanity. This future, if it is to be any future worth living in, must include those liberties and desires for self determination that exist in every one of us. There is no group (an abstract concept) that is worth the sacrifice of these principles. There is no group that is worth more that the individuals which make its existence possible. The greater good then, logically, should revolve around the nurturing of strong individuals, without which, the group crumbles into chaos and dust. Supplanting individualism for the sake of a surveillance society always leads to such an end.

As stated above, government spying and cataloging of citizens is a means to several ends. It is meant to create fear, doubt, and self censorship. It is meant to divert attention away from the legitimate criminal behaviors of authorities and towards the inevitable and justifiable reactions of those in opposition. It is meant to create efficiency in subversion. Meaning, when smaller forces (corrupt governments) seek to destabilize and diminish larger forces (populations), efficiency of action is the key. By identifying, then targeting and defaming specific and prominent critics of the Fed, for example, rather than making broad based attacks on all of us, the central bank is more likely to dissuade the growth of dissent, and chill the air for leadership figures in the movement. That is, if they are successful…

The great anxiety here is one of “what if”? What if they target you? Or me? What happens then? My personal response; who cares! The more people who effectively endure as obstacles to centralization of control, the more people they have to add to their ridiculous lists. Eventually, with catalogs of millions cluttering the war room, the very tactic of government spying becomes futile. The key is to cast off the dread of the machine and realize that none of us is alone in the fight. The juggernaut is hollow. Its terrible roar is choked with smoke. It rolls forward only because we have not yet dared to stand in its path. It is weak, and indeed, we may find, its doubts are far heavier than ours.

You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com

To contribute to the growth of the Safe Haven Project, and to help us help others in relocating, or to support the creation of barter networks across the country, visit our donate page here:

http://www.alt-market.com/donate

Do you have enough Non-GMO seeds in case of economic collapse? Seeds are the OTHER alternative currency, and if you aren’t stocked, then you aren’t prepared. To buy top quality non-GMO seeds at a special 10% discount, visit Humble Seed, and use the code Alt10

Original Page: http://theunhivedmind.com/wordpress/?p=5168

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Debka: Whoever hacked the drone, hacked the CIA — RT

Debka: Whoever hacked the drone, hacked the CIA

rt.com | Nov 30th -0001

New reports investigating Iran’s interception of a top-secret drone craft belonging to the CIA allege that the hijacking of the stealth airship could have roots not just overseas but in Washington as well.

Ongoing reports from RT have revealed that Iranian intelligence officer claimed in recent days that the recovery of America’s RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone on December 4 was not due to an equipment malfunction, as US authorities say happened with another craft last days later, but rather the handiwork of Iranian engineers.

As RT reported yesterday, overseas officials speaking on condition of anonymity say that they were able to crack the computers of the drone to hijack the craft and lead it to a safe landing after it caught the drone creeping over from a mission in Afghanistan. Now military sources speaking to Israel-based news outlet Debka insist that Iranian officials made their way into the drone commander centers at CIA headquarters outside of Washington in Langley, Virginia. Debka has close connections with the Israel intelligence community and in the past has been known for correctly reporting on issues of importance to the American intelligence community before US outlets.

According to the report, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s insisting to Fox News this week that the Pentagon will “absolutely” continue drone missions over Iran was a falsity, as those inside the DoD have actually suspended those stealth missions out of Afghanistan as American authorities fear that a second craft will be apprehended as well by Iran.

Less than two weeks after Tehran intercepted the Sentinel, another US-manned drone crash-landed at an American base in the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles.

Debka’s report, published Friday, makes note of how during similar episodes in the past, the US upped their military operations after such accidents in order to ensure America that security is not threatened. In this instance, however, America responded by first denying the disappearance and then pleading with Iran to return the craft with no known drone operations being conducted over Iran since.

The Israel-based outlet adds that in addition to hacking the GPS network of the craft, as Iranian engineers admitted earlier this week, the command center in Langley must have been infiltrated as to keep those controlling the robotic plane from noticing that the craft had been guided onto an enemy base. Had the CIA been aware of the hacking of the GPS network only, adds Debka, they would have surely triggered the craft’s self-destruct mechanism, rendering any wreckage unmanageable for Iranian authorities recovering the debris. Instead, Tehran officials were left with a pristine drone craft and have since thanked America for the gift and claim that they have decoded the technology of the craft.

Debka’s analysis of the hijacking also raises a last point worth bringing up — with the Sentinel’s mission over Iran being the first such flight there for the craft, whoever intercepted it was well aware of the precise day and hour of the mission. With Washington doubting their technology out of Tehran, going as far as to call it an “ox-cart culture” in recent weeks, the possibility that the attack was infiltrated from within the United States or with the cooperation of American officials seems more than likely now.

The topic of a war with Iran was debated by contenders for the Republican Party’s nomination for president last night, though Congressman Ron Paul insisted that continued American missions like the one in question are only creating hostilities between nations.

"You're trying to dramatize this that we have to go and treat Iran like we've treated Iraq," Paul said. "You cannot solve these problems with war,” said the candidate.

NYPD involved in online scandal again

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the NYPD for their actions on Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, even if they did beat peaceful protesters and arrest accredited journalists.

Occupy Wall Street

TSA lets rapper keep his weed

When he’s not recording tunes like “Personal OG” and “National Anthem (Fuck the World),” rapper Freddie Gibbs likes to travel. He also likes to smoke weed. A real lot.

Original Page: http://rt.com/usa/news/hacked-cia-drone-iran-029/

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Penn State officials' emails may show Sandusky coverup

Penn State officials' emails may show Sandusky coverup

by Yamiche Alcindor, content.usatoday.com
November 30th -0001

Emails from 2001 between Penn State University's former president, vice president and athletic director discussing what to do about Jerry Sandusky's alleged encounter with a boy in the shower are raising new questions, CNN reports.

The messages from February 26-28, 2001 may illustrate a cover-up by former Penn State president Graham Spanier, then vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley.

University officials "knew they had a problem with Sandusky after a 2001 shower incident, but apparently first decided to handle it using a 'humane' approach before contacting outside authorities whose job it is to investigate suspected abuse," CNN reports.

On June 22, Sandusky was convicted of abusing 10 boys over 15 years.

CNN said it does not have the e-mails but that the alleged contents were made available to them.

In one email, Spanier allegedly acknowledges Penn State could be "vulnerable" for not reporting the incident. "The only downside for us is if the message (to Sandusky) isn't 'heard' and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it," Spanier allegedly writes.

On February 26, 2001, Schultz allegedly writes to Curley that he assumes Curley's "got the ball" about a three-part plan to "talk with the subject asap regarding the future appropriate use of the University facility," ... "contacting the chair of the charitable organization" and "contacting the Department of Welfare."

However, Curley apparently changed his mind and refers to a conversation he had with head football coach Joe Paterno. It's not known what the two discussed.

Curley writes later that he rather just meet with Sandusky, tell him there's "a problem," and that "we want to assist the individual to get professional help," according to CNN.

Schultz and Curley are currently charged with perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse. They have pleaded not guilty.

The new emails could lead to further charges, CNN reports.

Original Page: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/06/penn-state-officials-emails-may-show-sandusky-coverup/1

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Saturday, June 30, 2012

A Massive Web of Fake Identities and Websites Controlled Flame Warfare

Map showing the number and geographical location of Flame infections on Kaspersky customer machines. Courtesy of Kaspersky Lab

The attackers behind the complex Flame cyberespionage toolkit, believed to be a state-sponsored operation, used an extensive list of fake identities to register at least 86 domains, which they used as part of their command-and-control center, according to researchers at Russia-based antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky says the size of the command-and-control infrastructure, which appears to have been still partially active a few days ago even after the operation was publicly exposed, exceeds anything they’ve seen before.

“The huge amount of fake domains and fake identities used to run this infrastructure is pretty much unprecedented and unlike any other malware that we have seen before,” said Roel Schouwenberg, senior antivirus researcher at Kaspersky Lab. “In my opinion, it’s an indication of the huge resources which went into this project.”

Many of the domains, set up as early as 2008 in some cases and as late as April this year, were registered with the GoDaddy registrar service, and used fake addresses in Germany and Austria, with Vienna being a particularly popular choice for the attackers, according to research done by Kaspersky. A lot of the addresses tracked to places like hotels, medical offices, and shops. At least one address was for the British library in Paris and shops. Other addresses did not appear to exist at all.

The domains pointed to 24 IP addresses, at various times, that were located in Germany, Poland, Malaysia, Latvia, Switzerland, Turkey, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and other places.

The attackers used each identity only two or three times on average to register a domain, before choosing a new one. It’s not clear what they used to pay for the domains. Kaspersky referred the question to GoDaddy, but the registrar did not respond to a request for comment.

Cybercriminals often use stolen credit card numbers to pay for domains used in their operations, but since Flame is believed to be a state-run operation, the attackers likely used pre-paid cards issued under fake names to register the domains.

Although the domains went dark about an hour after news of the operation broke worldwide last Monday, suggesting the attackers were shutting down the mission, at least three infected machines in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon were upgraded by the attackers with new versions of the malware after this occurred, Schouwenberg said, suggesting a certain boldness on their part.

Two of the machines went from having version 2.212 of Flame installed on them to suddenly having version 2.242.

“This means basically that this week, after the [news] announcement, the Flame command-and-control network was still operational and sending updates, possibly commands, to the victims,” Schouwenberg said. “Which, in my opinion, this is quite amazing, that despite all this noise and the story being everywhere, they’re still using the command-and-control infrastructure to send updates.”

Flame has a hardcoded password, 'LifeStyle2', that infected machines use to connect to command-and-control servers. Courtesy of Kaspersky

New findings also show that the attackers were particularly interested in stealing AutoCAD drawings from infected machines, according to the types of stolen files Kaspersky has seen infected machines trying to upload to the attackers’ domains.

AutoCAD is a popular software program that is used to render computerized models and schematics for architectural designs and consumer products, as well for the layout of machinery and networks at plants and factories, including critical infrastructure facilities.

The interest in AutoCAD documents is something Flame shares with DuQu, another espionage tool that was discovered on machines in various countries last year and is closely related to Stuxnet, the groundbreaking infrastructure-sabotaging malware that is believed to have wreaked havoc on Iran’s nuclear program in 2009 and 2010.

Flame is a 20MB malicious toolkit that consists of at least 20 known modules that can be swapped in and out to provide various functionality for the attackers – such as eavesdropping on conversations via the internal microphone on an infected computer, stealing documents or taking screenshots of email and instant message communications — depending on what the attackers want to do on a particular machine.

The toolkit is believed be part of a parallel project created by contractors who were hired by the same nation-state team that was behind Stuxnet and DuQu.

Flame appears to have been operating in the wild as early as March 2010, though there are clues that the malware may have been active as early as 2007. It was only discovered about three weeks ago by Kaspersky. It’s believed to have infected about 1,000 machines in the Middle East and elsewhere.

After news of Flame broke last Monday and the attackers shut down their domains, infected machines contacting the servers to report in and receive commands were met with 403/404 errors.

The researchers had already set up a sinkhole, however, and worked with GoDaddy and OpenDNS to divert traffic for about 30 of the domains to their sinkhole instead. This means that stolen files that would have landed in the hands of the attackers, are now being delivered to Kaspersky, though they’re encrypted by the malware before they’re sent out to Kaspersky.

The researchers got their first hit from an infected machine late that first evening after the redirect was completed, and have received communication from 118 infected systems from 18 countries and the Occupied West Bank since then.

Chart showing the domains the attackers registered for Flame and the registration dates. Courtesy of OpenDNS

Because antivirus firms distributed signatures and tools to detect and remove Flame quickly last week, the machines contacting the sinkhole are ones that either didn’t have antivirus installed on them, or don’t have updated signatures installed and are therefore still infected. These include 45 machines in Iran, 21 in Lebanon, 14 in Sudan, and 8 in the United States.

Each time an infected machine tries to contact the attack domains, they use a hardcoded password, LifeStyle2, to identify themselves as a Flame-infected machine. The password is coded into the malware’s configuration file, but can be changed.

Once a connection is established, the infected machine begins uploading compressed and encrypted packages of data, including an activity log that records everything the malware has done on the infected machine as well as a list of files it has sent to the attackers.

To avoid uploading entire documents from an infected machine to the attackers — which would mean collecting a lot of data in which they have no interest — the attackers designed their malware to just parse through PDFs, Excel and word-processing documents and extract a 1-kilobyte sample of the text. The malware then compresses and uploads the sample text to a command-and-control domain where, presumably, the attackers would pick through the contents and instruct the malware to then grab only specific documents that interested them.

Kaspersky still hasn’t figured out definitively if Flame is related to a piece of malware called “Wiper” that Iran reported had deleted files from machines at its Oil Ministry in April. The researchers have not found any module for Flame that wipes out files in the way that “Wiper” reportedly did, but have not ruled out that a wiper module may exist for Flame that they haven’t found yet.

One final new tidbit about Flame: the researchers previously reported that a kill module for Flame, called “browse32,” can be sent out by the attackers to wipe Flame off of systems. The kill module, they previously stated, searches for every trace of the malware on the system, including stored files full of screenshots and data stolen by the malware, and eliminates them, leaving nothing of the malware left behind.

The researchers now say that there is a mistake in the kill module and instead of deleting every trace of Flame, it leaves one file behind. The file is named “~DEB93D.tmp.” It’s the same file that Kaspersky has been instructing users to look for on their systems to determine if they are infected with Flame.

Posted from DailyDDoSe